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Dienstag, 7. August 2012

No end: North Kosovo

A few weeks ago, two top officials of the US Department of State European Bureau visited Belgrade and Pristina. I speculated at the time that it might be part of a US-led Quint effort to re-orient its approach to settling the issue of north Kosovo. Perhaps the Quint had finally taken on board the fact that efforts to impose Pristina's rule north of the Ibar through intimidation and use of force simply would not work. So some compromise might be in the works, something going beyond the current form of the Ahtisaari Plan. The US would have to take the lead because only it could br... mehr » Serbs block EULEX and KFOR in northern KosovoSource: Beta, Tanjug

LEPOSAVIĆ, KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Serbs at the Zupče barricade in
northern Kosovo have blocked several trucks belonging to the EU mission in the
province, EULEX.

(Tanjug, file)

The vehicles have
been prevented from traveling toward the administrative line crossing of Brnjak.
The trucks are loaded with large concrete blocks. The locals fear that they
will be used to block some alternative roads in the north.

Soon after
the citizens - who are keeping around the clock watch at Zupče - blocked the
EULEX vehicles, several armored transporters and KFOR troops arrived at the
scene, also blocking this road, leading from Kosovska Mitrovica to Ribariće.

This created a traffic jam.

KFOR soldiers are also deployed in
the nearby village of Jagnjenica, and at a checkpoint in Zupče - on the road
that leads to the ethnic Albanian village of Čabra.

Earlier in the day,
reports said that members of the NATO troops in Kosovo, KFOR, had withdrawn from
an alternative road that runs via Tresava in northern Kosovo.

They in
this way unblocked the road after ten days, allowing trucks and other large
vehicles through.

Leposavić Mayor Dragiša Vasić told Beta news agency
that the traffic was unobstructed in that area now, and that Serbs had removed
the blockade they had set up between the administrative crossing of Jarinje and
a police checkpoint of Rudnica.

He explained that Serbs were previously
blocking one lane of the road and did not allow passage to trucks.

"The
traffic is unimpeded for passenger vehicles, buses and vans," said Vasić.

Trucks are still traveling along the so-called alternative roads - which
local Serbs use in order to avoid paying "customs fees" to the Kosovo Albanian
authorities.

Serbs still keep watch at two locations on the road running
to Leposavić in order to thwart the ambitions of Kosovo customs officers to
reach Kosovo's far north, Tanjug is reporting.

Serbs are a majority
north of the Ibar River in Kosovo. They reject the authority of the government
in Priština, and the ethnic Albanian unilateral declaration of independence made
in early 2008.